Special MBS mousemats

Have you enjoyed visiting our website? Then you might like to buy a special, high-quality mousemat, unique to the MBS, featuring a superb direct colour photograph of a brass (from photos taken by Martin Stuchfield).

There are 10 designs in the initial range, as shown below, although additional designs will be available from time to time at Society meetings.

MM1 Ashford, Kent, unknown priest c.1282 (England’s earliest surviving brass)
MM2 Buslingthorpe, Lincs , Sir Richard de Buslingthorpe, d. c. 1340-4
MM3 Sherborne St. John, Hants, Margaret Brocas, c. 1380
MM4 Ashby St. Ledgers, Northants, John Catesby, 1404/5
MM5 Newland, Gloucestershire, Robert Greyndour, 1443
MM6 Broxbourne, Herts, Elizabeth Say, 1473
MM7 Tattershall, Lincolnshire, Joan, Lady Cromwell, 1490
MM8 Merton, Norfolk, Grace de Grey and daughters, 1495
MM9 Merton, Norfolk, William de Grey, 1495
MM10 Thame, Oxfordshire, Sir John Clerk, 1539

The cost of the mousemats is £4.50 at meetings; or £5 including postage and packing to the UK (for overseas postage please enquire to Suttonbadham@btinternet.com). Please send your order quoting the reference number of your chosen design (with cheque made payable to ‘The Monumental Brass Society’) to: Miss Sally Badham FSA, Dawn Cottage, Purrants Lane, Leafield, Oxfordshire OX29 9PN.

About half the sale price of each mousemat will go to the Conservation Fund., which is used to give grants to churches that are having their brasses conserved – see the Conservation webpage. Why not treat yourself (or give one to a friend) and know you are also helping the preservation of the brasses we all admire!
 

Pleas click here for the order form

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The Hastings brass at Elsing

John P. Ravilious has very kindly permitted us to publish his research into the relationships of Sir Hugh with the weeper figures shown on his brass, which heoriginally posted to the newsgroup soc.genealogy.medieval and to Rootsweb.com on 1 February 2006. As he refers to the Brass of the Month for March 2005,  his text has been put on a page linked to March2005_brass_of_the_month.htm but can be reached direct at  The Kinsmen of Sir Hugh de Hastings (d. 1347) and the Elsing Brass

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Important recent publications

Vlakke grafmonumenten en memorietaferelen met persoonsafbeeldingen in West-Vlaanderen:
een inventaris, funeraire symboliek en een overzicht van het kostuum

by  Ronald Van Belle

“Incised effigial slabs, brasses and memorials of West-Flanders : an inventory, sepulcral symbolism and an overview of costume, by RONALD VAN BELLE, edited by Uitgeverij Van De Wiele, Brugge, 2006. This work of 648 pages and 441 illustrations records 446 monuments (slabs and brasses) which still exists or from which there remains a rubbing or a good picture (for the ones which disappeared recently). To this list is added all the figure slabs recorded by James Weale, including those from which no illustration has survived or found yet. The oldest preserved slab dates from 1270 and the most recent one (with symbolic figuration) dates from 1848. An overview is given about the start of figure representation on flat monuments, the sepulcral symbolism as well as the analysis of the inscriptions. Information is provided about production centers and the role of Bruges in this respect.Some additional documents are provided about export of slabs from Bruges and evidence of production of incised slabs and brasses in Bruges during the 14^th cent. and early 15^th century. Some models of those monuments seem to have been designed by painters of the Flemish school as by the Master of the St. Ursula legend, Pieter Pourbus, Geraard David, Adriaen Isenbrand etc. An inventory is published of the collections of rubbings and dabbings of the Gruuthuse museum in Bruges, as well as that of the “Dienst cultuur” (cultural service) of the Province of West-Flanders. The alphabetical inventory of each monument is based on the old town/village repartition from before the merger to larger city entities. Most of the pieces are illustrated and commented, in addition to the epitaph biographical information is supplied in many cases as well as additional bibliography for further research. Many of the monuments are not recorded in F.A.G. Greenhill´s “Incised Effigial slabs”, and had never been studied or illustrated before. As such many pieces which disappeared during World War I are illustrated. There is also an overview of the costume on slabs and brasses, the identification and description of the typical Flemish costumes with their terminology as mentioned in documents or inventories of the time. There is in addition an analysis and publication of documents with rules about luxury in clothing and costume depending from social status or function in the old society as for instance the decree of the emperor Charles V from 1550. All coat of arms represented on the monuments are described. This work is essential to all interested in continental brasses and slabs, also for historians and art historians, people interested in genealogy , heraldry , history of costume and in art in general. The number of copies has been limited to 450.

648 p., soft cover, black/white illustrations
€ 75.00
shipping costs in Europe : € 13.00
ISBN-10 : 90 76297 32 0
ISBN-13 : 9789076297323

Orders:
Uitgeverij Van de Wiele , Jacobinessenstraat 5, 8000 Brugge, Belgium
Tel. + 32 50 33 38 05
Fax. +32 50 34 64 57
E-mail : van.de.wiele@skynet.be
Delta Lloyd 879-2433701-39
IBAN : BE 13 8792 4337 0139
BIC/SWIFT : BNAGBE BB

The contract for the brass of Richard Willoughby (d. 1471) at Wollaton (Notts.)

Nigel Saul's paper 'The contract for the brass of Richard Willoughby (d. 1471) at Wollaton (Notts.)' has been published in Nottingham Medieval Studies (see the Bibliography page for details). It transcribes the draft contract, dated 1466, with a London marbler, James Reames, for the surviving brass to Richard Willoughby and his wife Anne at Wollaton. The brass adheres closely to the detailed description given in the contract, which does not include any provision for the other elements making up the whole tomb. The paper discusses the brass in the context of the pressures applied by clients on engravers, the position of Reames in relation to London style D, to which the brass belongs, the influence of the brass on subsequent commissions of London D brasses in the Trent Valley, the price of the brass (8 marks) in relation to the evidence from wills, the whole monument (it has an elaborate canopy and a sculpted cadaver beneath the slab of the brass) in comparison with some contemporary examples, Willoughby's establishment of a chantry and his reasons for establishing his main residence at Wollaton, and the monuments of the following three Willoughbys buried there. 

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New booklet on the care of brasses

Our Conservation Officer, Martin Stuchfield, has produced a downloadable short booklet with guidelines to assist parishes on the care of brasses.  It is accessible via the Conservation page or  click here.

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New index to MBS Bulletin 1-100

To mark the issue of Bulletin 100, William Lack has compiled a complete index to Bulletins 1-100. This index comprises three sections:
1. A topographic list of references and illustrations, with all but the most trivial references to churches which contain, or have contained, brasses, incised slabs and allied monuments. Original references to the name of the person commemorated have been converted into references to the church concerned.

2. A general index which is not intended to be comprehensive but to list major papers, lecture reports, conference reports, etc.

3. An alphabetic index of books and important papers reviewed or described in the Notes on Books and Articles.

The link to the index is on the Publications index page, reached va the navigation bars on the top or side of this webpage.

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 Gift subscription scheme

Why not give a subscription to the MBS as a gift? It is great value for money.
Click here  for further details.

Click here for application form

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Thefts of monumental brasses
 Have you seen these brasses?

In the course a few months in 2002, there was an extremely worrying spate of thefts of monumental brasses, mostly from West Country churches. The pattern of locations targeted and the common modus operandi  for removing the brasses suggests that the thefts are probably the work of one person (probably with an accomplice to act as watch-out). A further brass was stolen from the same area in May 2004.

Over two years later, the Lacock figures were returned anonymously, being left in the the church. This may give hope that the other figures stolen at the same time will also be returned anonymously. In the meantime, if anyone sees the other brasses offered for sale, either in the UK or abroad  (stolen brasses may pass quickly through a succession of dealers before being offered for open sale), please alert the MBS, who are in touch with the parishes from which these brasses came. Anyone with information regarding these thefts is asked to contact urgently either:
    the Hon. Secretary
        Martin Stuchfield,
        Lowe Hill House,
        Stratford St. Mary,
        Suffolk, CO7 6JX
        (tel 01206 337239 or 020 8520 5249)
        or e-mail
        martinstuchfield@btconnect.com

        or Crime Stoppers (tel 0800 555111).

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If you have something you would like to contribute to our website e-mail:
jon.bayliss@btinternet.com